All things beavers

Lauren Cook says, “With my artist’s beret on, I see this animal as the original Capability Brown landscape artist. Just as his landscapes were designed to be seen from a painter’s viewpoint, the beaver’s aquatic habitat is one I wanted to explore with my paintbrush.”

Jack Perks says, “One of the main concerns of many anglers is that beaver dams pose a physical ‘block’ on rivers and fish migration – preventing this most ancient and fundamental movement. I once had these thoughts.”

Jamie Kingscott-Edmunds says, “Releasing any animal into the wild can be quite a task…there are plenty of long days and sleepless nights before, and after, the final release.”

Mike Blackmore says, “Yes, we know how damaging artificial impoundments are on river ecology. However, to compare concrete weirs to woody dams is to compare chalk to cheese.”

Maddie Stannard says, “Leaving the planet in a better state than we found it, both socially and environmentally, should be a goal universally shared, and by taking a leaf out of the beaver’s book, we can begin to emulate the same principles.”

Dominic Buscall says, “Each of these projects is significant in its own right, but what is most exciting about Wild Ken Hill is its potential scalability across lowland UK, and its ability to balance conservation and farming discourses.”